U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,411 to Frenkiel teaches static reuse of frequencies in a large-cell reuse pattern to an underlaid, smaller reuse pattern. The smaller reuse pattern is achieved through yet lower transmit powers (or perhaps different SNR or C/I criterion) than in the larger cell.
In planning cellular radiotelephone systems, there is a never ending tension between Carrier-to-Interference (C/I) immunity and highest capacity, all drawn from the very same scarce radio spectrum. Higher frequency reuse directly improves capacity, but adversely affects C/I performance. Frequency hopping improves C/I performance, but requires more allocated frequencies over which to hop. Yet, both interference (C/I) and capacity (frequency reuse) are dynamic, traffic-induced, demographic, and time-of-day phenomena. These dynamic phenomena are not well suited to traditional, statically-planned strategies.
This invention takes as its object to overcome these shortcomings and to realize certain advantages presented below.